As for Charlie Adam, it certainly looked like there was ‘intent’ on the Blackpool midfielder’s part. The Scot went in overly hard and overly high with a malicious-looking lunge – well above the Welshman’s ankle.

In short, it looks like Bale was lucky to escape without a broken leg/ankle – at least if these photos are anything to go by.

Thankfully, the word on the wire this morning is that Bale has ‘only’ suffered ankle ligament damage, though Harry Redknapp has said that he isn’t holding out much hope that the winger will return before the end of the season.

geez i hope hes ok messi recovered from a similar thing earlier this season, i didnt see the match but if adam went in maliciously then I hope the FA come knocking, even if it would bugger blackpool’s chances of staying up which is a shame

@Rich: In the interest of fairness, it didn’t look like Adam went in with the express intent of breaking his ankle, but the challenge was definitely geared towards doing Bale a physical discourtesy as the ball was long gone.

If I behave recklessly and without consideration for others, then I’m to blame for any damage or injury that arises, regardless of whether I expresly intended it. Adam was way out of order with that challenge, it was disgusting.

There is definate intent there without doubt, Bale was gonna roast the right back and Adam thought being the captain he wasn’t going to let that happen. I hope the fat c**t, gets his just deserve’s, it could have been a career ender. Speedy recovery Bale’o.

It was a dirty “over the ball” tackle by the SOB Adams – PERIOD! Bale was running rings round Blackpool at the time and this malicious challenge was meant to hurt the kid and take him out of the game! The other disgrace is that the Ref Probert and his linesmen missed not only this immediate red card offence but also the push on Daws for the first penalty and the dive for the second one! If talented players like Bale cannot be protected from thugs like Adams then there is no hope for the game! Spurs need to send to the FA a video of this deliberate attempt to injure Bale and the pathetic refereering of this game!

Thoughts? I haven’t seen the footage so I won’t comment on the tackle, but these comments have been over critical of Adam, he was a rock for blackpool before Liverpool turned his head in January, but more importantly, I don’t want to see a good player getting injured, I’d rather the pictures weren’t plastered on the homepage

Being an Arsenal fan I have lost count of the amount of times I heard shite from spurs fans like “if only you get trophies for broken legs”. Now one bad tackle and they are all moaning like cunts. Bale was lucky not to be hurt more than he is so dry up and stop crying bitches

Fuck … having seen this happen to a couple of my Gunners, I got squeamish when watching the video.

Way too reckless, even if it wasn’t intentional … look, just because a player has `been a rock’ or `isnt’ that type of player,’ doesn’t take away from the bad tackle. Being a good guy 99% of time doesn’t justify 1% that puts a player out for 6 months.

People!!! Yeah it wasnt a pretty challenge and i feel for Bale cause thats gonna hurt for some time but Charlie Adam didnt set out to do him!! A miss-timed and rash challenge, and worthy of a yellow card but not a capital punishment crime!!!

@ CFC_Jay
personally, i think he DID set out to do it, and here’s why:

if you go in on a rash/mistimed challenge, then you have the intent to possibly injure someone. if you’re not completely, 100% comfortable with sliding in to win the ball then you have to say to yourself “there’s a good chance i might hurt this fella here”. did hope to take him down? yes. hope to hurt him? no. but he never looked liked he was going to win the ball.

I was watching it and thought it was one of those where you try and put your weight into someone so you get the ball and knock him flying with a perfectly legal, but physical challenge. Bale would have landed on his arse unhurt but ruffled and people would applaud Adams timing.

Football is a contact sport and if you do it properly people dont get injured. It was just a shite attempt at a tackle and worth a red, but not a hanging offence.

This was not intentional. If you watched it real time you could see that there was no intent. Adam even went up to Bale in genuine concern to check how he was. 2 vs 1 is more likely than not going to end up in someone hitting the deck. In this instance Bale was clearly too quick and the ball was released during the time Adams was making a tackle. This article is clearly biased – this is what happens in football so quit trying to point the finger of blame everytime someone misses a tackle.